Families desperate for news of Egyptian ferry tragedy

Rescuers found more than 300 survivors and 185 bodies after a ferry carrying as many as 1,500 people sank in the Red Sea early Friday.

The rescue effort was continuing into the night, with searchers hoping that more passengers from the Egyptian ship Al Salam Boccaccio 98 managed to make it onto lifeboats before the vessel went down.

Water in the area about 90 kilometres off the Egyptian port of Hurghada hovers at around 20 C at this time of year, so there's not much chance of people surviving a long exposure.

For distraught relatives, there was little news. They wait patiently in the port of Safaga, the ferry's destination, but the authorities have nothing to report.

"What do you know? Who's alive, who's dead?" they ask reporters.

The ferry disappeared from radar shortly after leaving the port of Dubah in western Saudi Arabia on Thursday night.

There was no indication the crew called for help before the estimated time of the sinking, between midnight and 2 a.m. Friday, when most of the passengers would have been asleep.

Search teams were assembled when the vessel didn't arrive at Safaga, about 190 kilometres from Dubah, as scheduled at 3 a.m. local time.

Even though the ship had sunk 18 hours earlier, Egyptian Transport Minister Mohammed Lotfy Mansour was optimistic when he spoke to CBC News at about 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EST) on Friday.

"It's dark but we are continuing operations," he said. "There are people on life-rafts and they are being picked up."

But, he added, "it's going to be a long night."

Reports of the number of people on the vessel varied between 1,318 and 1,500, including a crew of 96.

One report said 1,158 Egyptians were aboard, mostly men returning home from working in Saudi Arabia, as well as 99 Saudis, 10 other people and one Canadian.

However, Canadian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Marie-Christine Lilkoff said the department is not aware of any Canadians aboard.

Embassies in Cairo and Riyad are looking into the possibility. Canadians who believe family members might have been on the ship are asked to call 1-800-387-3124 or 613-996-8885.

Survivors found in lifeboats, plucked from water

Survivors were rescued from lifeboats launched from the sinking vessel, from emergency inflatables dropped by aircraft, or picked up from the water wearing life-jackets.

Capt. Mandoux Orabi, fleet manager for the ship's owner, Egyptian company El-Salaam Maritime Transport Co., told CBC News that a ship called the Green Island had picked up 75 people.

Four Egyptian frigates were sent to rescue survivors, as well as three ships from El-Salaam Maritime. A U.S. Orion patrol plane joined the search.

Mansour said that the 35-year-old ferry met safety requirements and that the number of passengers on board was fewer than the maximum allowed.

He told CBC News that Egypt has no idea yet about the cause of the tragedy.

Ship was "roll-on, roll-off" type

The ship was reportedly carrying about 220 vehicles. Some experts have speculated that one or more of the vehicles might have shifted in heavy seas, or that water might have entered through the big doors for rolling cars on and off the ship.

"Roll-on, roll-off" or "ro-ro" ships have a bad safety record, David Osler of the London shipping paper Lloyds List told the CBC.

After a disaster with a British ro-ro ship in the mid-1980s, standards in Europe were tightened and older European ships were sold to Third World operators, Osler said.

Since then, "it's been a bloodbath," with six or more sinking in the Third World this decade, he added.